13.  The applicant, who was born in 1960, was sentenced with final effect to life imprisonment. He was subsequently acquitted following a retrial which he had sought after he had applied to the Court.
14.  The present application concerns the conduct of the initial proceedings.
15.  In its judgment (paragraphs 6-14) the Chamber established the following facts:
“6.  On 4 August 1993 the applicant's wife, Ms B., was murdered. A number of factors suggested that the murder had taken place between 11.30 a.m. and 12 noon (or, in any event, shortly before or afterwards) in the flat occupied by Ms A., with whom the applicant was having an extramarital affair. 7.  Proceedings were subsequently instituted in respect of the applicant and Ms A.
Between 7 August and 8 November 1993 the applicant was interviewed four times by the Rome public prosecutor. He denied having participated in the murder and stated that on 4 August 1993 he had gone to the National Police Institute, where he worked, leaving the premises only between 10 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. in order to have some keys cut and to file certain documents at the land registry. He mentioned, in particular, that there had been a stamp missing from the file of the person in front of him in the queue at the land registry and that a discussion had ensued with a clerk. The applicant had not, however, been able to identify the person in question.
The time of the applicant's absence from the National Police Institute was subsequently confirmed in statements by his colleagues. During the trial the applicant produced a copy of the documents he had allegedly filed at the land registry on the day of the murder; the documents had been stamped with an acknowledgment of receipt.
During questioning Ms A. stated that the murder had been committed by the applicant, who had then asked her to dispose of the body. 8.  On an unspecified date the applicant and Ms A. were committed for trial in the Rome Assize Court on charges of murder and concealing a body. 9.  At a hearing on 28 October 1994 the applicant made a request under Article 507 of the Code of Criminal Procedure ('the CCP') to have Mr B. summoned and examined as a witness for the defence. He asserted, in particular, that Mr B. was the person who had been in front of him in the queue at the land registry on the day of the murder and would be able to confirm the events to which the applicant had referred during questioning; Mr B.'s name had not been included on the list of witnesses because his identity had only been ascertained at a later stage after a lengthy search. ...
In an order of 28 October 1994 the Rome Assize Court refused the applicant's request on the ground that the examination of Mr B. was not “absolutely necessary” (Article 507 of the CCP).
In the course of the investigation the carabinieri carried out a reconstruction of the events in order to establish how long it would take, in early August and in a car identical to the one owned by the applicant, to cover the twenty-three kilometres from the National Police Institute to Ms A.'s flat. It was found that the return journey could be completed in forty minutes. 10.  In a judgment of 29 November 1994, the text of which was deposited at the registry on 24 December 1994, the Rome Assize Court convicted the applicant and Ms A. and sentenced them to life imprisonment. It noted that the applicant had not adduced any evidence to prove that he had in fact gone to the land registry. The documents produced bore no indication that they had been filed by the applicant himself and not by another person. ...
In its reasoning the court also stated that a number of factors established the applicant's guilt, in particular the bruises and injuries observed on his hands and legs, the accusation made against him by his co-defendant, Ms A. (chiamata di correo), and his numerous telephone calls and meetings with her before and after the offence had been committed. 11.  The applicant appealed to the Rome Assize Court of Appeal. He complained, inter alia, of the refusal to call Mr B. as a witness for the defence and of the failure to investigate facts and circumstances favourable to his case. 12.  In a judgment of 27 November 1995, the text of which was deposited at the registry on 6 December 1995, the Rome Assize Court of Appeal upheld the judgment given at first instance.
The court noted that the defendant had been charged as a joint principal. Consequently, it observed that it had to ascertain, firstly, whether the statements accusing him were valid and, secondly, whether there was any other evidence. It therefore had regard, in the first place, to the credible and spontaneous nature of the accusation made against the applicant by his alleged accomplice. It then considered other evidence, including the fact that the defendant had had a valid motive for killing his wife. The court also noted that the autopsy had shown that two people had participated in the murder, and concluded that the only person who could possibly have assisted Ms A. was the applicant himself, seeing that all the members of her family had an alibi. It took into account the fact that a number of bruises had been observed on the applicant's body and that their location might suggest that there had been a struggle with the victim. It also considered the telephone calls between the applicant and his accomplice – noting that no calls had been made on the day of the crime – and the meetings between the two defendants that afternoon and the following day. It also noted that the victim's brother had received an anonymous telephone call referring to information that only the applicant was likely to have known. In the court's opinion, that indicated an attempt to hinder the investigations. The court concluded that the evidence it had examined offered more than satisfactory proof that the applicant had participated in the offence. Next, it assessed the significance of the alibi given by the applicant and held:
'In the light of these unequivocal and compelling findings, no credibility can be accorded to the defendant's alibi. The court cannot but endorse the reasoning of the first-instance court, which demonstrated with the utmost precision that there was no evidence to support the defendant's submissions and that, in any event, the time of the offence was wholly consistent with the length of time during which he was absent from his place of work. ... For that reason, the defendant's applications for further evidence to be taken are irrelevant.' 14.  In a judgment of 18 April 1996, the text of which was deposited at the registry on 9 May 1996, the Court of Cassation, finding that the reasons given by the Assize Court of Appeal on all the issues in dispute had been cogent and correct, dismissed the applicant's appeal. It held, in particular:
'It is perfectly apparent from the Assize Court's judgment – to which the Court of Appeal's judgment refers almost in its entirety – that the defendant's alibi was taken into consideration and clearly held to be invalid, devoid of substance and, in any event, not established except for the details relating to time, which were given in vague terms.
...'
As regards the grounds of appeal challenging the courts' decision not to carry out a further examination of witnesses, the Court of Cassation held that those grounds should be dismissed:
'Indeed, the courts below gave precise reasons with regard to each issue raised, based on findings made in the course of the proceedings, on the conclusions of expert assessments – ... – and, lastly, on the serious nature of the offence and of the defendants' conduct.'”
16.  On 30 July 1999 the applicant applied to the Perugia Court of Appeal for a retrial. However, the Court was not informed of those proceedings until the proceedings before the Chamber had ended.
In a judgment of 19 February 2001, deposited at the registry on 1 March 2001, the Perugia Court of Appeal considered the application justified and, having re-examined the facts of the case, acquitted the applicant.
17.  During the retrial the Court of Appeal had heard evidence from B., of which it gave a detailed summary in its judgment.
18.  It appears from the judgment, which runs to 276 pages, that the Court of Appeal decided to acquit the applicant after considering several pieces of evidence, including the examination of B., which it summarised as follows (see pages 41-42 of the judgment, reproduced in almost identical terms on pages 113-15 in the grounds concerning the merits of the application for a retrial):
“The next step was the examination of B. (who had never given evidence during the proceedings resulting in the conviction), an employee of the ATAC [Rome metropolitan transport authority], who at the material time had been thirty years old and had had a second job as a surveyor; he had often gone to the Rome land registry for files concerning registration of property.
The witness's features were similar to those which Mr Pisano had mentioned when questioned by the public prosecutor on 8 November 1993, at which point he was being held in custody and did not have the opportunity to confer with anyone else ('There were two people in front of me at the land registry. I remember that as I was waiting at the registration office to register certain files, the clerk realised that a person in front of me in the queue did not have a stamp on his file. The person was a young man aged between twenty-five and thirty, with short brown hair' – see pp. 185-86 of the file on the investigation, Appendix 92). After inspecting a file (labelled 'Primavera' and concerning an application to change the land register) which was shown to him at the hearing, the witness stated that, as part of an occasional venture in association with a surveyor, G.S., he had completed and submitted in person, on 4 August 1993, the 'Primavera' file, which was assigned the registration numbers 63465/6/7/8, immediately preceding the 'Monari' file, which had been found in the defendant's briefcase and was numbered 63469... He stated that he had gone to desk E, where a clerk had taken his file and handed it to the person in charge of registration.
The witness stated that, as usual, he had arrived at the land registry between about 10 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. and had queued to speak to the clerk on duty, and subsequently in the registration office; however, 'when [he] went to retrieve [his] file, there was no stamp on the plan and [he] therefore had to retrieve it at a later stage' (p. 92). In that respect, he confirmed the statements which the defendant had made when questioned on 8 November 1993.
The surveyor B. added that the observation that the stamp was missing had been conveyed in civilised terms, as he had acknowledged his own error, and that the surveyor G.S. had been informed and had subsequently given him the stamp to rectify the administrative error pointed out by the registration department.
He further stated that, during the previous proceedings, the surveyor G.S. had been contacted by the defendant's brother, Mr Mario Pisano, that G.S. had put the latter in touch with him, and that he had sent a letter [to the lawyer acting on behalf of the applicant at the time] whose content was consistent with his present statements (see the document appended to the application for a retrial).
Mr B. lastly stated that he had always had short hair, that he had already started to lose his hair in 1993 and that there had been no substantial changes in his appearance. ... [pp. 41-42]”
The Court of Appeal subsequently assessed the applicant's conduct and reached a number of logical conclusions (extracts from pages 148-227):
“Having thus far referred strictly to the contents of the case file without drawing any logical 'inferences', the court considers that it must now set forth two logical and legal considerations whose importance is far from secondary. [p. 148]
(1)  ... It appears manifestly self-evident that if Mr Pisano had indeed planned and carried out the crime in Riano with the same care with which, according to the hypothesis put forward during the trial, he 'could have handed' (at what time?) the 'Trappetti' and 'Monari' files to a 'replacement', sent the latter to the land registry (a scenario which, in any event, has been ruled out by the fresh evidence) and 'possibly' (when?) obtained from him the 'provisional receipt' for the 'Monari' file ..., he would surely also have kept the receipts [proving that he went to the hardware shop], yet he threw them away. [p.149]
...
(8)  Statement of grounds for dismissing the rebutting evidence adduced by the Principal Public Prosecutor and by counsel for the civil parties [p. 200]
...
All this points to the 'certainty', alluded to in abstract terms by Mr Cristiani [a lawyer acting on behalf of the civil parties], albeit for different reasons, of Mr Pisano's innocence.
That conclusion may be reached even without taking into account the corroboration of the alibi given by the defendant to prove that he had been at the Rome land registry between 10.40 a.m. and 11.15 a.m. on 4 August 1993... [p. 223]
...
Mr Monno [another lawyer acting on behalf of the civil parties] subsequently disputed whether the alibi had been corroborated.
Mr Monno, still on the subject of the alibi, drew attention to the alleged practice whereby, in order to save time at the land registry, 'provisional receipts' were drawn up several days before being issued; that 'could have happened' with the 'Monari' file, in which case the defendant 'could have sent someone else', who 'could have returned' the provisional receipt for the 'Monari' file to him at a later stage.
That hypothesis not only appears to be purely abstract, but is also unquestionably refuted by the 'fresh evidence' gathered during the retrial, namely the witness statements by B., A. and D.G. and the report by the handwriting expert, all of which offer incontrovertible proof of the following: [p. 226]
...
(3)  the two 'provisional receipts' completed at 11 a.m. on 4 August 1993 when the 'Monari' file was handed in at the Rome land registry (one has remained in the office's archives while the other was found, with no signs of creases, in the briefcase taken from Mr Pisano and was first examined in the course of the present retrial at the hearing on 16 December 2000) have been confirmed as being in Mr Pisano's handwriting; even if the content of the two forms is identical, there are differences as regards the boxes that have been ticked, which undoubtedly suggests that the defendant had not completed them earlier 'at his convenience' but did so in an uncomfortable position, leaning on his briefcase... [p. 227]”
19.  On an unspecified date appeals on points of law were lodged against the judgment of 19 February 2001 by the Perugia public prosecutor's office and by the civil parties. On 26 September 2001 the Court of Cassation, in plenary session, dismissed the appeals, thereby upholding the Court of Appeal's decision. It held that the failure to examine B. was a further factor, among others, to take into consideration.